UN / DEATH SENTENCES EXECUTIONS

12-Apr-2018
00:02:40

The Amnesty International global report on capital punishment shows that “the world is getting closer to ridding itself of the ultimate cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment,” according to its Senior Director for Law and Policy, Tawanda Mutasah. UNIFEED

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4. SOUNDBITE (English) Tawanda Mutasah, Senior Director for Law and Policy, Amnesty International:
“The report, Amnesty International’s global report, Death Sentences and Executions 2017, shows us that the world is getting closer to ridding itself of the ultimate cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment. Amnesty International now documented a reduction in the number of executions and death sentences in 2017 around the world.”
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6. SOUNDBITE (English) Tawanda Mutasah, Senior Director for Law and Policy, Amnesty International:
“Compared to 2016, we saw a fall in executions to the level of 4 percent. We saw a fall in death sentences by 17 percent. This reduction in executions was attributable to decreases in three countries, which had the highest number of executions in 2016. That’s Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.”
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8. SOUNDBITE (English) Tawanda Mutasah, Senior Director for Law and Policy, Amnesty International:
“In the context of Egypt, you are right, part of our concern is we say in the Middle East and North Africa region, Egypt imposed the majority of death sentences that we could confirm in 2017. We know that they carried out at least 35 executions, 34 men and one woman. We know that at least 402 death sentences were imposed on 394 men and eight women by the courts. And we know that some of these issues they pertain, as you rightly said, to journalists, to human rights defenders, to issues that relate to protests, to a number of other issues.”
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10. SOUNDBITE (English) Tawanda Mutasah, Senior Director for Law and Policy, Amnesty International:
“In the context of Israel, as you know, Israel is one of the few countries, and it’s good that you are talking there of one of the issues coming up in the Knesset now. But it is one of the few countries that together with Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Kazakastan and Peru, who would say that abolition is for ordinary crimes only. And part of what we are edging is for them not to slide back but to actually slide forward.”
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STORYLINE

The Amnesty International global report on capital punishment released today (12 Apr), shows that “the world is getting closer to ridding itself of the ultimate cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment,” according to its Senior Director for Law and Policy, Tawanda Mutasah.

The report, Death Sentences and Executions 2017, Mutasah told journalists in New York, “documents a reduction in the number of executions and death sentences in 2017 around the world.”

The Amnesty International official said, “compared to 2016, we saw a fall in executions to the level of 4 percent. We saw a fall in death sentences by 17 percent.”

He noted that “his reduction in executions was attributable to decreases in three countries, which had the highest number of executions in 2016. That’s Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.”

Egypt, Mutasah said, imposed “the majority of death sentences that we could confirm in 2017” in the Middle East and North Africa region, carrying out “at least 35 executions, 34 men and one woman,” and “at least 402 death sentences were imposed on 394 men and eight women by the courts.”

He said “some of these issues they pertain, as you rightly said, to journalists, to human rights defenders, to issues that relate to protests, to a number of other issues.”

Israel, Mutasah said, “is one of the few countries that together with Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Kazakastan and Peru, who would say that abolition is for ordinary crimes only. And part of what we are edging is for them not to slide back but to actually slide forward.”

Among other findings, the report indicates that positive steps seen across sub-Saharan Africa, with Guinea becoming 20th abolitionist state, substantial decreases in death sentences and ongoing legislative developments.

Iran and Malaysia, the report states, adopted legislative amendments to reduce the death penalty for drug-related offences.